


Chicken Salad

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Post-Episode S7E16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 22:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10500726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: The fact that the boys spent more time during their romantic couples' escape with each other than with Lynn and Melissa did not go unnoticed by Lynn, who decides to say something about it to Steve.





	

**Author's Note:**

> _Oh, episode 16, you delightful little thing....._
> 
> Well, well, well. So, last summer, I started a story where Lynn and Melissa plan a getaway for them and the boys. You can probably guess where I was going with it.... But for several reasons, I never finished it. So, when I saw S7E16, I knew I had to write something. This is the result, and I will say—it did not go where I was expecting it to, but I enjoyed where it went! Maybe now I’ll have to dust off that other story and see if I can make it work....
> 
> Just one little thing: My head is spinning a little with this one... it came fast and furious, but I’m leaving it without much fuss, because I want to get on to writing part three of Mind Reading, so please excuse any mistakes or poor writing or whatever!

“Thanks again, Lynn,” Steve said softly, as he walked her to her door. “I had a really great time.”

Lynn smiled, but it seemed, even to Steve’s lack of emotional processing skills, like a sad smile. “I know you did, Steve.” She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “But maybe you should think about _why_ you did.”

“What do you mean by that?” He stammered.

She set her bag down, leaned against the door.

“I mean that Melissa and I had a really lovely time together. We got to know each other quite a bit. We certainly had lots of time to talk... and, she’s sweet and cute and has a great ass and all... but she’s a little young for me.”

“Yeah, well, she’s a little young for Danny too.” The words were out of his mouth before he’d had time to reflect at all on what Lynn was trying to say to him.

“Mmmm.” Her smile was _knowing_ now. He knew that one because Danny used it a lot. So did Kono, come to think of it. And Chin.... And Lou....

“Look, I’m sorry I got so distracted by Danny’s stupid antics. I just couldn’t help it. I know how he gets sometimes, when he can’t let something go....”

Her smile broadened. “You have that in common.”

“What? Do we? I mean....” Frustrated, he fell quiet.

“You have a lot in common, probably more than either of you realize.”

“We both have amazing girlfriends.” Even he heard how weak it sounded.

She ducked her head and scratched the back of her neck, letting out a resigned sigh. “Yeah, that wasn’t what I meant, and I don’t think it’s what you mean either.”

“What are you talking about? You guys were awesome!” He was flailing now... _what was she getting at?_

“Steve. You barely noticed us. Neither one of you did. You were almost completely focused on each other.”

“...What are you trying to say?”

“Oh, Steve. Think about it, sweetie.”

“Hang on, it sounds like.... Are you breaking up with me?”

“Steve, I will always love hanging out with you... but that’s what we do. We hang out. And I love that, I do, but... I think... I think there’s someone else who you really, in your heart...” she reached out and placed her hand softly on his chest and he wondered if she could feel his heart racing. “Someone else who is here. Someone else you really want to be _with_.”

His jaw started to drop, but he’d suddenly gotten what she was saying, and it hit him right in the gut. How had he missed that? _Had_ he missed that? He had a hard time swallowing, but he had to say it, the only thought that flooded his mind: “But Danny loves Melissa.”

“Does he? Then why do you think he had such a hard time being romantic with you around? And why... why do you think he basically invented a case for you guys to solve?”

He had wondered about that, just a little. Grasping at straws, he mumbled: “He used the safe word....”

“Yeah, that was a little embarrassing for all of us....” She sighed and put a hand on his arm. “Just think about it, Steve,” and she let herself in.

 

Steve _didn’t_ think about it, or about anything, on the way home. He didn’t think about it while he unpacked, throwing everything in the wash. Didn’t think about it while he made himself a snack. Didn’t think about it while he sat in front of the TV not watching a show and not thinking about what Lynn had said, and definitely _not_ thinking about Danny. He didn’t think about it in the shower, while brushing his teeth, or when he set his phone to charge.

But once Steve was in bed, with the lights out... he kind of started to think about it.

Did she have a point? He and Danny had, despite their initial bravado at each being irked by the other’s presence, basically spent the day together. Not with their amazing girlfriends who arranged the romantic getaway, but with each other. What did that say? What did it say that Steve had been completely unable to leave Danny alone to his stupid sunglass obsession? That he’d run out of yoga class to chase down his fixated partner? Well, yoga sucked, that was absolutely part of it, but it had helped that he’d had an excuse. And, what had Danny been playing at anyway? He had said he was supposed to be romantic with Melissa. But he didn’t even try. Steve had thought it was about the sunglasses, but maybe that was just as lame an excuse as yoga had been for him. Was it possible there was something more to it?

Eventually, Steve fell into a fitful slumber. He dreamed about yoga classes where chickens wearing sunglasses were better at those ridiculous poses than he was, he dreamed about beach volleyball games where he and Danny played against Lynn and Melissa. And he dreamed about Danny. Danny in those distracting white trimmed shorts, and that infuriatingly tight long-sleeved tee shirt, and those tantalizingly bare feet. He woke up in a sweat while it was still dark out and stared up at the ceiling for what felt like hours. At some point he fell back asleep, right back into more dreams. Dreams in which Lynn and Melissa whispered seductively to each other over cocktails, then morphed into Chin and Lou, who laughed and made bets about Steve and Danny, and paid each other in chicken salad. By the time the sun was barely up, he was more than ready to get out of bed to get away from it all.

He swam twice as long as usual. Drank three times as much coffee. Ate less than he should have. And arrived at work more than an hour early.

Danny was already there.

Steve stilled in the hallway when he noticed. Caught between wanting to acknowledge Danny and not being prepared to face him yet, he settled for a wave on his way past Danny’s office, and slunk into the chair behind his desk, punching the computer on, and staring blankly at the screen.

Not five minutes passed and Danny was strolling in, plopping himself on the sofa, kicking his feet up, and laying back like he was in a psychiatrist’s office.

“Hey, babe,” he sighed. “You’re in early. What’s up?”

Steve’s head was swimming, probably from too much caffeine and not enough protein. And, not nearly enough sleep. And maybe something about too many thoughts swirling like a whirlpool that threatened to suck him under. He could have made up something about paperwork from the case the rest of the team had had the day before, something about telling Chin and Kono and Lou to take the day off and spend it with their significant others. He really wished he’d thought of that.

“Didn’t sleep very well,” he said instead, and promptly kicked himself.

“Yeah, me neither,” Danny replied sleepily, bringing an arm up to rest over his eyes.

Steve took advantage of being unseen by Danny to study him. He was wearing navy slacks and a pale blue shirt, and had his hair gotten lighter in just one day? He hadn’t bothered to shave, so he was kind of scruffy looking, which Steve always preferred. And, crap, had he just admitted that? Danny was wearing black loafers, and blue and purple polka dotted socks. Steve wanted to rip them off, longed to see Danny back in those stupid shorts and that maddening shirt, barefooted and glowing like gold in the soft Hawaiian sun.

_Crap, crap, crap_.

But then, he’d had some very strange dreams. And he hadn’t slept, hardly at all, not sleep that counted. And he’d had way too much caffeine. And... and... and. He sighed, rubbed a hand over his face, and stood up.

“Let’s get out of here, huh?”

Danny took his arm off his face, squinted at Steve. “What the hell are you on about?”

“Let’s get out of here, we don’t need to be in yet, and I’m not going to be any good like this anyway.”

Danny sat up and looked Steve up and down. “You look fine to me,” he said on a smirk.

Steve rolled his eyes and shoved the door open a little too violently. “Come on, Danny, let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Danny asked as he trotted behind Steve to catch up.

“I have no idea,” Steve replied, as he submitted the outer office door to a similar assault.

“Easy there, babe, it’s not the door’s fault.”

Steve stopped dead in his tracks, turned on Danny. “Then whose fault is it?”

“Whoa, babe. Easy. What is going on?”

Steve sighed. For some reason it sounded more like a growl. “Just. Come with me.”

“I’m coming, whatever you need, I’m here.”

Steve’s heart thrummed loudly in his ears. Why did Danny’s words feel like everything he wanted to hear and the worst thing he could have said at one and the same time?

When they got to the parking lot, Danny got his keys out to hand to him, but Steve went to the truck instead, which he saw made Danny pause. Climbing into the truck beside Steve, Danny seemed concerned. Steve tried to put the keys in the ignition, but his hand was shaking too much.

Danny reached over, and gently took the keys from him. “Babe, talk to me, please.” He turned in his seat to face Steve, and waited.

Steve tried to calm himself, but that damned coffee, recklessly consumed to make up for the lack of sleep, was doing him in.

Well, nothing for it. May as well just dive in. He was drowning anyway. “Do you think we sabotaged the day with the girls?”

Danny chuckled. “Uh, yeah. We sure did.”

“We?”

Danny let out a softer laugh this time. “Yeah, babe, we. I mean, I’ll take the blame for a lot of it, but you didn’t exactly help.”

Steve felt his eyes narrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Babe. If you hadn’t followed me, I wouldn’t have done it. I would have stopped. I...”

Steve was really suspicious now. “You, _what_ , Danny?”

He sighed. “Okay, look. I didn’t get it then, but I did not sleep well. I had some really wacked out dreams, alright? And as I was thinking about them after, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, it started to make sense.”

“It did?”

“Yeah, babe. In a way, you were a convenient excuse. I could blame you for my inability to be romantic with Melissa. Kinda like you could use me as an excuse to not be romantic with Lynn? I mean, I get that she’s less needy like that than Melissa is, but I think maybe she had the idea she’d spend more time with you than with my girlfriend. I think maybe the real reason neither of us wanted the other there is kind of the same reason we wound up spending the whole day with each other and not our girlfriends.”

“Which is what, Daniel?”

“Because we’d rather be with each other.”

Steve knew his mouth dropped open. I mean, he’d basically figured that much out for himself, thank you, but... to hear Danny say it, as though it were no big thing, as though it had been the easiest realization and hadn’t completely turned his life inside out.... “That’s ridiculous, you love Melissa.”

Danny smiled. “I notice you don’t say that you love Lynn.”

“Yeah, that’s not really our thing. We’re just having fun.”

“Uh-huh.”

Steve felt dizzy. “But you... I heard you say it, unlike last year... you can say it now. You _do_ say it now....”

“Yeah, well, it was that or lose her....” Danny looked wistful. Maybe a little sad.

He was confused, and yet... he was starting to get it. “So, what, you’re saying you don’t really mean it?”

“No, of course I do,” Danny smiled. “How could I not, she’s adorable, and she puts up with no end of my crap.”

Steve scoffed.

“As do you,” Danny replied, softly.

“Yeah, well, I’m not adorable.” He knew he was moping.

“No, you’re a jerk and you are frustrating and you drive me absolutely insane.”

“Okay....” Steve’s heart, he was pretty sure, had stopped beating.

“Evidently I prefer insane to adorable.”

Yeah, his heart was definitely not beating. “Well, I could have told you that.”

“See? This is my point. We both have amazing girlfriends, who put up with us, who plan romantic Valentine’s trips for us, and we ditch them and....”

“And?”

Danny leaned in and kissed Steve.

And he knew, as soon as those lips touched his, he knew. And he saw he’d known all along. Since... since he’d seen Danny on that balcony. He’d known before, but that was it, that was the moment that had done him in.... And then coherent thought stopped, and he fell the rest of the way into that whirlpool.

After a considerable while, they both pulled back, short of breath, Steve’s head swimming from lack of oxygen, he could hear the blood in his ears, feel his heart trying to leap out of his chest, and fourteen other classic symptoms. “How the hell are we going to get through the day?”

Danny grinned. “Oh, we’ll manage.”

“Yeah? I don’t know....”

“Look, babe, we’ve been doing it for years.”

Danny was exuding this calm confidence that was at odds with how Steve’s insides felt. “Yeah, but,” he stammered.

“Trust me, we will be fine.” And Danny opened the door of the truck and headed back towards the office.

And, strangely, he was right. They went into their offices, where they stayed till the rest of the team came in. They didn’t get a case that day, so it was a paperwork catch-up day, which meant for the most part they kept to their own offices and just focused and got stuff done. Somehow pouring himself into the mindless busywork helped, and by lunch time Steve was feeling surprisingly calm.

As they often did on days like this, the team ate together. Lou’d gone out and gotten them lunch from a place down the street. He set it all out on the table in the big room, and narrated it as he did. There was macaroni salad, green salad, chicken salad, and rolls.

“Who wants a chicken salad sandwich?” He asked with a remarkably straight face.

Steve looked at Danny, and they both started to laugh.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chin slip Lou a twenty.


End file.
